I'm looking for a flash with a budget of < $200. I have a Nikon D3100, and I'm a beginner with photography, who is taking some classes and wants some flexibility with a decent bounce flash.

I was surprised to find that the only Nikon flash < $200 is the $119 SB-400, which I'm concerned might be a little too limited. But the next jump up is around $279+ to the SB-600, and up from there with the SB-700.

I'm looking for some strong recommendations for alternative brands that will provide comparable functionality of an SB-600 at a more affordable price.

If there are no options, then we'll consider the higher priced Nikons, or postpone the purchase 'til we have a bit more cash, so if you feel really strongly that we have to go with one of the more expensive Nikons, let that be known.

I recently bought a Yongnuo YN465 for about $80 from Hong Kong, I cannot comment on how it compares to the Nikon ones but it beats the on-board flash hands down. It has tilt, swivel, ttl and will zoom to some degree. Also has a slave function built in to fire off another flash.

One option is to get non-TTL flash. For example LumoPro LP160 recommended by strobist is around $160, so you'd get lighting power of hi-end Nikon flash at lot lower price. Put the remaining $40 to umbrella and PC sync cord and you're done.

The downside obviously is that that flash is fully manual, so you need to adjust the power yourself. But at $200 you need to do compromises somewhere, be it power, automation, reliability or something else.